Founded more than 165 years ago in Germany as a specialist printer for banknotes and securities, the family-owned company has evolved into an international technology group. Around 11,400 employees across 32 countries are constantly working to make the lives of billions of people more secure. We partner with our customers to guarantee reliable cash and digital payments. We safeguard the digital connectivity of people and machines over the Internet. We protect personal identities and cross-border traffic. And we defend national governments, public authorities, and critical infrastructures against data misuse. Our Group CEO, Ralf Wintergerst, outlines our strategic overview and plans for the future from page 2.

Faced with an accelerating pace of innovation in our markets, we are responding in two ways. Firstly, we supply our customers and end users with pioneering technological solutions. Secondly, we are continuously optimizing our own organization to ensure we remain a trusted partner to our customers and an attractive employer for our staff. This 2018 annual report focuses on four employees who are representative of their colleagues. Riwaj Sapkota from G+D Mobile Security is leveraging eSIM management to enable millions of devices and machines to communicate with each other securely via the Internet of Things. Leonie Bruckert from our listed subsidiary secunet AG is a cryptography specialist, who is working to ensure our IT security remains effective even in the approaching era of quantum computers. Fabiola Bellersheim from Veridos, our joint venture with Bundesdruckerei, is providing Bangladesh with one of the most sophisticated and secure e-passport and border control systems anywhere in the world. Finally, Marc-Julian Siewert from G+D Currency Technology is building one of the world’s most advanced, highly automated security printing facilities in Egypt.

Together with the entire G+D team, these four individuals are really making a difference in the world. You can read about what motivates them personally and what they value in G+D as an employer on pages 10, 14, 18, and 22. This year, we are expanding the scope of the information we provide as G+D becomes more digital in line with market and customer trends. This means our annual report is becoming more digital too. Our corporate website at www.gi-de.com contains the entire annual report, plus additional content relating to the four employees mentioned above – including interviews, video reports, and selfies. We hope you enjoy reading this report and viewing our website. Thank you for your interest.